Reactor II Bridle repair-*UPDATE, first flight with repair.

Some of you may have seen my post in the kite review section where I reviewed my new to me 8.6m PL Reactor II and how on my 2nd or 3rd ever flight with the kite (1st time in the buggy with it) I stepped a bit too far back in the light wind, crashed the right wingtip into my buggy and cut a bridle on my front fender.

Well, I contacted Angus at Coastal Windsports (who sold me the kite from his personal collection), as well as the guys at Fixmykite.com. Angus wanted to see if the guys at Vliegerop (Peter Lynn) would be willing to help. I also exchanged emails wih the guys at Fixmykite to see what they could do and explore the options. It turned out that the replacement bridle piece from Fixmykite would only cost somewhere under $20, but after finally getting the Vliegerop guys involved, they said they would reproduce it at no charge. So in spite of actually having to wait longer probably than if I had paid Fixmykite, I was patient and finally received the piece in the mail on Friday. (Many, many thanks to Angus for all the help).

Having followed my tale of woe on the other post, Markite was kind enough to email me some really great instructions and diagrams without my even asking. I was pretty sure of how to go about it, but having my presumptions confirmed by an experienced person was helpful. Thanks Mark! :D

So I took it upon myself to go ahead and do the bridal fix today on my lunch break, and it was SUPER easy. I didn't expect it to be too difficult, but I was really surprised at how easy it actually was. So if you ever find yourself in a situation where you have to do this DON'T be intimidated.

I'm fortunate that my work place has a lot of really big rooms with open floor space where I can lay out kites if I need to. So today I opened out the RII half way to tackle this:



Following my intuition and Marks instructions, I first removed the kite line from its attachment point, which I learned from Angus is called the Toggle. (The old Toggle was looking to be in bad shape so I opted to replace it as well). To replace a broken piece of bridle you have to deconstruct it from the top down and disassemble everything above the broken piece. I separated out the broken piece form the first group of bridles and kept them together with masking tape. I started at the top and was able to pull apart the larS-P-A-M-L-I-N-K-s head knots from the existing toggle and remove it. Since I am fortunate in this case to be due to clip my fingernails, pulling the knots apart was pretty easy:





My broken piece was connected on the opposite end to 3 very small bridles that are linked directly to the kite, so I taped those 3 together and pulled apart the larS-P-A-M-L-I-N-K-s heads and set them aside:





Now I was ready to add in the new piece from Peter Lynn. You would think that since they manufactured the kite, they would know that the bridle material on the kite is red, but for some reason they sent it to me in white,... But it was free, go figure :D

First I put the loop of the new bridle through the 3 bridle loops which attached to the kite, then put the opposite end of the new bridle through the loop I just passed through the 3 others and pulled the larS-P-A-M-L-I-N-K-s head tight:







Next I went to the first group which had been attached to the toggle and added the new piece to the bundle and passed them all through the loop on the tail of the toggle. Then passed the knotted head of the toggle through all 4 loops and pulled it tight. Re-bridling done!







One thing I noticed was that the new toggle is about 1/2" shorter that the old one, but the old one looked in pretty bad shape and needed replacement. I can fine tune that 1/2" on the knots on the leaders of my handles without a problem. All in all, while I know I wasn't timing myself, I know it didn't take more than 20 minutes.

I know the white bridle will stand out, but it looks to be the right length and I'm sure it will do the trick. We'll see how this big guy flies when I get the chance.



The moral of the story is, if you break or pop a bridle, don't fret, it is inexpensive and not terribly difficult to fix yourself.

Thanks for reading,
Spencer

That was it? I was thinking you were going to replace all of them.
Glad to hear it worked out. It is very easy to replace a damaged piece of the bridle but you dont know that until you actually take it apart and replace it. Great job in explaining and posting pics to help the understanding public.

A simple trick if it bothers you, use a sharpie to color the replacement. The color will not be perfect but it will not stand out and remind you every time you fly the kite. Sharpie does have a wide variety of colors.

Good job, now we want to hear about the kite and the way it flys.

Thanks Jeff, the color doesn't bother me enough to break out the sharpies

Thanks for the tip Chook

Soliver, I meant to say well done on the "How to replace bridals".
A few photos like that, when I was on my first attempt would have save a lot of wondering.

One step at a time and take heaps of photos if your not sure and they go back together well.

I was forced to "do" a bridal, after ripping the complete left hand brake bridal out of a Reactor 3.8m2.
A main line broke. (my fault, it powered up while I was stopped and not looking)

I got all the tabs restitched back into the kite, after it's open heart surgery and realized I hadn't larks headed the bridals to them as I went.

Anyway a top effort and 5 stars from me.:D

Quote: Originally posted by Chook

and don't pack the kite away wet with a bridal that has sharpie on it. It bleeds a bit.

Dry erase markers are far more colorfast on porous materials. If you ever want a T-Shirt signed by a celebrity, offer them a dry erase to sign it with. It will never wash out of cotton without some severe effort. Synthetic fibers vary of course so this might not be applicable to the bridle material..

Quote: Originally posted by knkmannthey

You and I are going to have to go out flying sometime. Ia have to see this monster again

Indeed!!!

Really busy with school lately, but after Oct.... IT'S ON!!